Increased activity and healthier eating can contribute to shrinking love handles as part of overall fat loss, but it's important to remember that this can also take some time. Stick with your plan for a healthier lifestyle, and you'll eventually reap both the aesthetic and underlying health benefits.
The length of time to get rid of your love handles will depend on how much fat you have to lose, what lifestyle changes you make, and how well you commit to them. It can take about four weeks of consistency to form new, healthy habits, and up to 10 weeks before they become automatic.
The underlying cause of love handles is fat retention. Generally speaking, fat cells accumulate when your body takes in too many calories or you don't burn as many calories as you're consuming. Over time, these fat cells can become noticeable as they accumulate in certain areas, such as around your waist and hips.
In addition to a healthy diet, the right exercises can help target the back, abs, and hip regions to help reduce the appearance of love handles. Combining cardiovascular exercises with weight-lifting exercises can target the fat around the abdomen and help you lose weight.
While you can't spot-reduce, you can reduce your overall percentage of body fat while toning all your major muscle groups including your core, to get a fitter, tighter appearance. Consistency is key to reducing your love handles in as a little as one month. Cut down on your refined carbohydrates to lose more body fat.
"Love handles," also known as "muffin top," refers to excess fat that accumulates on the sides of one's abdomen. They differ from hip dips in that they are located much higher on the body, settling around a person's waistline.
As seen above, love handles can be considered subcutaneous fat, however, an expanding waistline (love handles included) is a sign of visceral fat (12). To know if your love handles are a sign of visceral fat, just measure yourself, 35 inches or more in women and 40 inches or more in men is a clear sign of visceral fat.
“For men, love handles are hard to lose because most of their fat cells are located in this area,” explains personal trainer and nutritionist, Jim White, RD. Women's bodies like to deposit fat into the hip and thigh area, too, which creates the illusion of love handles, says Leah Kaufman, MS, RD, CDN.
A healthy, calorie-controlled diet and a regular regimen of cardio and strength-training exercise will whittle away lower back fat and love handles, and in two weeks' time, you may start to see a difference.
Losing love handles (stored fat) and increasing the metabolism so you can lose weight more effectively are all tied into a consistent cardiovascular/resistance training program. The stored fat around your midsection (for men) is typically the last to leave your body, even after months or years of an exercise plan.
Russian twist is another great exercise for getting rid of love handles. Start by sitting down on the floor on your hips. Bend your knees and keep your feet flat on the floor. Lean back to form a 45 degree angle with the floor.
“Muffin top” is a slang term used to describe an accumulation of fat around the midsection, just above the hips.
Side plank dips
This will not only help you get rid of your love handles but also tone your arms amazingly. To try this exercise, begin in a side plank. Inhale and lower your pelvis to the floor, your right hip must hover just off the floor. Exhale and press your body up, returning to the side plank.
Hip dips are a normal part of the human body and nothing you need to get rid of. They're mostly based on your genetics and bone structure. No amount of exercise or lifestyle changes will completely get rid of them. Instead, you're better off focusing on strength and stability exercises.
Bella Hadid: fashion show hips dips
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Love handles, the pinchable fat on both sides of your stomach that leads to a “muffin top” appearance, are especially stubborn. They do not respond as quickly to diet and exercise changes as the more dangerous visceral fat that is deep within your abdomen and leads to more of a “potbelly” appearance.
Crunches:
The most effective exercise to burn stomach fat is crunches. Crunches rank top when we talk of fat-burning exercises. You can start by lying down flat with your knees bent and your feet on the ground.
“Dynamic exercises, like spiderman push-ups and side planks with a reach through, help with your love handles by building muscle. A lot of times we can be neglectful of our side bodies,” Marizu says. Perform each move for 30 seconds and then take a 30-second break for as many rounds as possible.
Lift up the chest until it is just inches away from the thighs. Inhale and control your return to the start position to complete one repetition. Sit ups done for 30 minutes in five days a week can strengthen the stomach muscles and reduce love handles.
What Are Love Handles? Exercise cannot target fat in specific areas of the body. Love handles will shrink as you lose weight overall, mostly through cutting calories. Abdominal exercises may improve muscle tone and appearance, but it's a myth that you can “sculpt” the fat away.
The best way to eliminate love handles is by doing full body workouts that blast fat. Burpees, jumping lunges, planks and other full body exercises can help you build muscle while losing body fat in the hip area.
Bridge lifts target not only love handles, but also glutes. Lying on your back, put your feet on the ground, bending knees in a 90 degree angle.